How Sandy Might Change Personal Finance

Traditionally, personal finance has been, well, focused on the personal: do you have enough saved for the curveballs, for an emergency?

But we’ve been thinking, here in the heart of the storm's fallout, that Sandy—following on the heels of so many other disasters (tsunamis, wildfires, this year's drought)—could disrupt that old paradigm.

This storm has stirred up a need to think bigger: from having enough money to cover yourself in a crisis—to also being able to support friends, family, community.

You might not want to get all hipster and call it “community finance." But if this is "the new normal," then maybe we need to think about saving and giving—even security—from a more expansive, shared perspective.